Time is not a great artist but weakens all he touches.

I have generally found that persons who had studied painting least were the best judges of it.

The serpentine line, or the line of grace, by its waving and winding at the same time different ways, leads the eye in a pleasing manner along the continuity of its variety.

All the world is competent to judge my pictures except those who are of my profession.

I know of no such thing as genius, genius is nothing but labor and diligence.

Simplicity, without variety, is wholly insipid.

Straight lines vary only in length, and therefore are least ornamental.

I think it is owing to the good sense of the English that they have not painted better.

I had rather, if cruelty has been prevented by the four prints [The Four Stages of Cruelty], be maker of them than of the [Raphael] cartoons.

The splendor of God is displayed in the stars with the magnificent of the moon.

Let us raise a standard to which the wise and honest can repair the rest is in the hands of God.

Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.

Every time you use the phrase all my life it has a different meaning.

Learning was of two kinds: the one being the things we learned and knew, and the other being the training that taught us how to find out what we did not know?

Thousands are hated, while none are loved without a real cause

The real liberators of American women were not the feminist noise-makers, they were the automobile, the supermarket, the shopping center, the dishwasher, the washer-dryer, the freezer.

I've always been able to get inside a song really easily, and if it's my song, I can make it seem honest.

But I like all the books. You've got to read them all to get the complete Harry Potter experience.

Politics are about preserving relationships at the end of the day, and it has nothing to do with the greater good for humanity. It's just all about business.